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Effect of early thermal environment on the morphology and performance of a lizard species with bimodal reproduction

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Journal of Comparative Physiology B Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Early developmental environments influence life-history traits and survival of reptiles. In fact, rising global temperatures have already caused widespread extinctions among lizards. Viviparous species might be more susceptible to increasing temperatures because of their inability to meet their energetic demands following rapid environmental changes. Nevertheless, we do not yet fully understand how lizards with different reproductive modes can respond to climate change. We investigated the effect of both maternal thermal environment during pregnancy and incubation temperature on hatchling morphology and physiological performance of two populations of the lizard Saiphos equalis differing in their mode of reproduction, to test whether reproductive mode affects the ability to buffer against rising temperatures. Gravid females from both populations were subjected to current or projected end-of-century (future) thermal environments, to evaluate differences in the body size, growth rate, thermal preference, and locomotor performance of their offspring. Our results show that independently of the mode of reproduction, high temperatures accelerated gestation periods. Thermal environments did not affect hatchling thermal preference, but viviparous hatchlings consistently preferred lower temperatures. Unlike viviparous lizards, oviparous hatchlings incubated under future temperatures were smaller and had a lower growth rate compared to current-incubated hatchlings. Finally, thermal environments did not affect hatchling endurance and speed when controlling for body size. Our results show that global warming is likely to have a negative impact on S. equalis, but suggest that some of its effects may be ameliorated by maternal responses during pregnancy, particularly in viviparous populations.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during the current study (raw data files and R scripts) are available in the Open Science Framework repository (https://osf.io/6jzv8).

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Acknowledgements

We thank Sergio Naretto and Cooper Van Der Waal for their assistance in the field and the laboratory, as well as Catarina Vila Pouca and Birgit Szabo for their helpful suggestions during the writing of the manuscript. We thank Camilla Whittington, Michael Thompson and Scott Parker for their advice regarding animal biology, capture and identification. Finally, we are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for the helpful comments which improved the manuscript.

Funding

Financial support for this research was provided by the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour (2018 Student Grants), the Australian Museum (2018/19 Peter Rankin Trust Fund for Herpetology), and Macquarie University. This work was performed in the Plant Growth Facility (PGR) at Macquarie University. IB was supported by an international Research Training Program (iRTP) scholarship from the Australian Government and Macquarie University. VD and RL were supported by Le CROUS (Centre Régional des OEuvres Universitaires et Scolaires) de Strasbourg and University of Strasburg (France).

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

MJW and IB conceived and designed the experiments. IB conducted fieldwork. IB, VD and RL performed the experiments. IB, VD and RL analysed the data. IB and MJW acquired the funding for the research. IB, VD and RL wrote the first draft of the manuscript. IB and MJW reviewed and edited the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Iván Beltrán.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures and protocols were approved by the Macquarie University Animal Ethics Committee (ARA No. 2017/029) and collection of animals was approved by the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH; licence No. SL101962).

Additional information

Communicated by Kathrin Dausmann.

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Beltrán, I., Durand, V., Loiseleur, R. et al. Effect of early thermal environment on the morphology and performance of a lizard species with bimodal reproduction. J Comp Physiol B 190, 795–809 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-020-01312-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-020-01312-2

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